Unforgiven
by T-Ninja
Summary: A heartwrenching tale of two adventures who call for the assistance of a third, only to suffer at the third's hands. Dark and angsty, rated T for some violence.


Before I begin this story, I would like to let you all know that this is a very dark story, with angst all over. I recommend you not read this story if you do not like such things. This story is not meant to speak out or be directed against anyone or anything; it was simply a story that I couldn't keep to myself as I thought it up. Dark as it is, I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I own absolutely no part of Maplestory whatsoever, not even any part of the Nexon company. Lawsuits are officially rendered a waste of time, as the most you will receive is a big hearty laugh in your face….and MAYBE a pair of pants.

**UNFORGIVEN,** a story by Tninja.

--------------------------------------------------------------

You thief. You monster. You FIEND! Look at this. Look at what you've done.

Then again, you already looked, didn't you? You saw it. You were all too eager to gaze upon it.

I trusted you. WE trusted you. We took you in...because we saw your strength. We saw your ability. We saw how you could defeat monsters with ease, from the colored kittens to immense block golems.

I admired your strength, and so did she.

So why...why did your power...kill her? Why...why did YOU kill her?!

I was always told power corrupted. I never thought it would be like this.

We asked for your help, and you eventually accepted. We then ran into trouble...and you killed her because we couldn't truly help We tried, though, but you didn't care. You selfish fiend.

Why did we ask for your help? How I hate to reminisce, but then again, that's how life can be, right?

--------------------------------------------------

I guess you could say it all began when my love and I were traveling in El Nath. Alcaster had asked us for his help on finding the ancient book. We were always helpful people to those who needed it. That's right-she was an assassin and I a bandit, but don't let that fool your mind. You can't always judge on appearances, you know. We taught many people that. I wonder if...if that was what led to your accursed actions.

I ramble, let me continue. We managed to get much of the quest finished, we did. Unfortunately, we couldn't get everything done. Eventually, we had to fight a werewolf. We used everything we had to try and fight it-speed, stealth, the full potential of our weapons-but nothing seemed to work. The battle became especially intense when the wolf leapt above me and came after my love, enraged by her hail of knives. She was trapped, between a cliff wall of rock and two sets of claws. But I promised I'd never lose her. With all of my speed, I came between her and an impending slash, knocking her out of the way. I took a bit of damage myself, but nonetheless escaped with her. Together, hand in hand, we fled those cliffs, heading back to town.

On our way back, we met you. You were a warrior, battling monsters with strength beyond our wildest dreams. Your targets were yetis, and they fell to you with ease. What we noticed, moreso, was how you battled them: ruthlessly and mercilessly. Wether they were large or the small juniors, your sword cut through them ferociously, with a very strong arm and a mind to match. It was a way even we weren't used to. Yes, we did fight hard ourselves, but we weren't overly destructive like you. Some monsters we fought, like snails and mushrooms, didn't seem like monsters that deserved such overpowering damage. If it weren't for the fact that they did fight back, we wouldn't worry about them at all.

Still, we needed assistance, and we seemed to find a good amount of it in you. After all, we did see your sword glow with the power of fire, letting us know you had the abilities of a white knight. The knights that we met before all had hearts of gold, and were great help to us in times past. Of course, we had no idea you would be different, not like I do now, so we only thought it natural to ask for help.

Asking you didn't steer you from your killing of yetis. You didn't even turn to see who was calling to you. All you did was kill, kill, kill. If I had known better back then, I'd say killing monsters was all that even mattered to you. Something tells me I would've been right. Nonetheless, when our pleas went unanswered, we decided to fight yetis ourselves. We worked hard to fight them, harder than you, especially the bg ones. As we wore on, my dear friend soon stopped killing the juniors, and soon I did as well. If you would've asked, we would've told you they were just too weak for us, something you wouldn't mind hearing. I'm sure you wouldn't have like the other reason: we just didn't feel like killing them. They seemed so small for us, so easy to break, yet so full of life, and so new to the world in their own way. Plus, if we left them alone, they did the same. Was it so wrong, even for us adventurers, to refuse killing certain monsters for such selfless reasons? Was it so weak of us to let live those we're more than a match for, providing they didn't threaten us ourselves? Apparently, in your eyes, it was, as we would soon learn.

As we trained, we must have finally gotten your attention, as some of my love's knives hit a yeti you were attacking and finished it off. You simply stood there for a few moments, as if something had come over you. We stopped as well, waiting for a response. We knew we shouldn't have taken your target like that, even by accident. We walked over to apologize, but your nature was revealed to us immediately as you stabbed your greatsword into the ground and stomped over to us. "WHAT do you think you're DOING on MY hunting turf?!" I remember how you yelled like that.

The first thing I could think of at that time was what either of us had done to earn your belligerence. I never thought to ask you that until now, you know.

We quickly tried to calm you down, saying that we were only here to ask for your assistance in the task given to us. In response, you merely laughed, asking in return why he had to waste his time on us "weaklings." Weaklings? So you called the kettle black before seeing how well it worked? You should know, if you even bothered to see, that you really pissed my love off. I could see the tears in her eyes; your behavior was starting to get to her. I, knowing that we still needed help, decided to give you a chance for redemption. I remember laying around a million mesos at your feet, telling you it was yours if you just accepted our request for aid. It should've occurred to me at the time how low certain people could be if it took mounds of money to get them to do something. Seeing the money, though, you did eventually accept our aid, even after saying, "These mesos are more convincing than you are, y'know." That comment made ME simmer, but we still followed you, thinking we had the right kind of help. I mean, sometimes doing a little good in the world can really humble people in the world, people like my love and I. We were certain you couldn't be any different. You were a white knight, after all. Couldn't you have seen the good in helping others?

We had to stop by town to replenish our supplies before we left, of course. I would like to apologize for ruining your oh-so fragile patience back then, if you even had any. You were right about us going to town to get the things before finding someone, but then again, you happened to be on the way back to town, and we were on the desperate side. We figured you wouldn't mind, but I guess your will is weaker than your armor, isn't it? I mean, I only said I was sorry for you so I wouldn't hurt your PRIDE. Zakum knows we wouldn't have wanted to hurt that!

We fought monsters as we ascended towards the grave we were sent to find. My love and I fought as much as we could, trying to make ourselves as useful to you as we could. Though it wasn't pleasant to us, we tried to look the other way when killing the weaker junior yetis. We worked to fight like you did, ignoring their squeaks of pain as we brought them down, seeing through the rather innocent look they held in their eyes. We managed to do it somewhat, but never like you did. It was like the junior yetis, heck, ANY yeti for that matter wasn't a yeti to you. Still, we kept fighting all monsters we could, then something suprised us. One of the juniors we thought we killed actually turned into a yeti! Caught off guard, we didn't quite noticed the ground smashing attack that sent us reeling, almost falling off the high cliffs that we stood on.  
We called you out for help, and...you took a while to answer, fending off yetis of your own. Eventually, you came down and slaughtered our opponent in seconds. In response, we tried to thank you, but you merely looked the other way as you asked, "Just how on earth did you two even manage to become as strong as you are?! A junior transforms and you can't seem to handle it?! You fools. You should know that juniors are just as monstrous as the normal ones!" Then you stormed off.

We followed, but at a slowed pace. We couldn't help but ask ourselves, why did you treat us like that? We were giving you credit when credit was due, and our only reward was scorn. Of course, now I wonder, did you look at all sentient beings that way? Insignificant creatures beneath your foreboding BOOT?!

I waste time with my thoughts, so let us continue, shall we? Later on, we were inside the cold dungeon of endless trees, getting closer to our goal. The monsters were getting more powerful as we traveled; yetis and junior yetis alike were wearing dark fur, appearing more ferocious. I remembered them; my love and I could barely handle them ourselves, but we did our best, even as you took them down without breaking a sweat. It took so much effort for us to keep up with you. I began wondering if anyone could stand in your way, or be worthy of your might. I was wondering if even my love and I combined were worthy of your strength. We had our doubts that you were even still interested in us.

You laughed as we fought against the dark creatures. You gave no thought to helping us, even as we put our lives on the line for helping Alcaster. You just stood there, watching us. I always wondered what thoughts were swirling within that black mind of yours. I wondered if you even thought of us as somewhat capable humans...if you even thought of us at all.

Our destination was growing closer. I knew in my heart, as did my love, that the werewolves would be coming, and we had to fight with everything we had. To get past them was our original intent, but remembering you, it soon became apparent we'd be trying to prove our worth to you like crazy.

When the werewolves finally came into view, ready to fight, it became evident we could never be as strong as you were. Even though the wolves seemed to really give you a bit of a challenge for once, you still took them down rather easily. All we could do was watch as you slew them with little trouble. Of course, we learned we weren't allowed to stand and watch for a moment. Yes, we didn't like people slacking from the fight for long periods, but just watching for a mere moment? "Fight, you two! FIGHT NOW! You're even more useless when you're standing!" Without hesitation, we quickly found a werewolf, and, though our hearts sank from fear, we did our best to help.

Did you know there are people out there whose expectations are too high? Well, if you didn't, you should've taken a closer look in a mirror.

Try as we might, we simply couldn't bring them down like you did. Finally tired from all the fighting, my love and I suggested that we simply move on and ignore the werewolves. If we moved quickly enough, we could evade them all. I even offered to haste you-

Your fist met my face at high impact, and I was flat on my back in a heartbeat. My love was at my side, making sure I was okay. You, meanwhile, simply said, "Both of you are of no more use to me. Do the time-wasting errand on your own."

Your words hit both of us hard. I simply stared at you, frozen. The way you reacted...you were no better than those werewolves, weren't you? My love seemed to think so; she was especially offended by the change of heart, and stormed up to you to voice her opinions. She did what I had wanted to do ever since we met you, only I didn't want to lose what I believed to be a powerful source of help. At that time, however, as she chastised you for your lack of heart and absence of concern for others, I knew the person you were wasn't worth the help we were getting. I knew she was right as she talked you down.

She did very well. I could even see your face turn away under the arguments.

Eventually, breathing hard after her yell, she came back towards me as I started getting back up. She smiled at me, seeing that I was alright. I smiled back. We loved each other very much, and right then and there, that was all we knew.

I always wonder, didn't you love anybody. Didn't anybody love you? Did you even give anyone a chance to love you?

What you did next...well, I'm not sure if that answers these questions, but it sure gives me a good idea.

My love was coming towards me, arms open wide, when a blade, a sword, suddenly shot out through her chest. My heart froze, and my joy faded, as I watched a sudden and unerasable look of fear and heartbreak bloom on her face. She fell to her knees, holding her wound, trying badly to stop the bleeding. As the blade left her from whence it came, I ran unceasingly to her side. I tried to help her, to keep her warm, to keep her safe. She was barely breathing.

It came to mind, as I held her close to me; that blade, I knew what it was. A maple soul singer. It was yours. It was drenched in blood. The blood of many creatures was dried on it. But there was some blood that wasn't.

It was you...you killed her. And you didn't even care. You simply turned around and walked away. As you did, you muttered, "Nobody gets in my way...and lives."

I watched you walk as boundless rage flowed from my heart. She wasn't in your way. You weren't even MOVING at the time! You just stood there, taking it all in...or then again, you couldn't take it. You couldn't take a simple lecture from someone who cared about who you were...about what kind of person you were. So you mortally wounded her, just like that.

Well, let me tell you, I sure as hell couldn't take THAT! In fact, all I could think about was your statement. "Nobody walks away and lives." I looked down at my love, shivering in the cold, as I thought those words over. She must have thought of them, too, because she shook her head, her eyes emanating anger.

At that point, I knew what I had to do. I had to prove you wrong. I had to show you just how strong I truly was. With a cry of fury, I ran at you. You heard, and your sword locked with my shinkita. My eyes held anger. Yours did as well, but they also held...suprise. Amazement at what I was doing. What, did you not think I could fight back?! I guess you didn't, and your words proved it. "Just what do you think you're doing?!" you screamed. "You are nowhere near my level of power! You and that inferiority of yours are a waste of time!"

I growled back at you, never breaking my gaze into your eyes. "She is NEVER a waste of time. She is NOT inferior. She is my friend, my love, and true meaning to my life." As our blades grinded against each other, I decided to fight the way bandits were known for. With your face to me, I brought my wristguard to the side of your head. Even as it bounced off the side of your helmet, I knew it was distraction enough. You tried to bat it away, and my shinkita found your face.

The battle was over before it began, and for once, you lost. Did you expect it? Something tells me you didn't. I never did either. Then again, first time for everyone, eh?

After the bout, I was by my love once more. I had given her everything I could to help; a potion to heal, my cape to shield her from the wind, and words of comfort to ease the pain. She was thankful for everything I gave, even though the white potions simply couldn't repair fast enough. Eventually, her eyes closed one last time. I held her close even as she left me, unable to hold back my sorrow. I still believed she was with me, in mind and heart.

Though solemn in every way, I had found new strength; I pushed back the doubts in my mind, the negative words thrown at me, and proved to myself, and to you that while I can't compare to you physically, I am much, much stronger than you in so many ways. Does that suprise you? It shouldn't.

For starters, unlike you, I actually have a heart.

I'll stop there, though. I grow cold, and I should give my love the final resting place she deserves. I walk past your fallen form, not even bothering to take my weapon back.

Before I go, though, I will tell you that I did respect your strength, greater than mine as it was. Though I hated the person you were, I'll always admire the warrior you technically were, even after you died by my hand.


End file.
